


No Place Like Home

by auroreanrave



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Universe - Afterlife, Gen, Paradise, Post Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-19
Updated: 2014-01-19
Packaged: 2018-01-09 07:24:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1143164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auroreanrave/pseuds/auroreanrave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The big reunion Tami's been waiting for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Place Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> Spiritual take on events far in the future - 'LOST' style. Big reunion.

The table is being set outside, there's not a breeze to be found, and Tami is grateful for the endless sunshine that beats down on her back.

It's always sunny here, at least in the summers. Perfect summers. Those crystal blue skies, bluer than she's ever seen, stretch on for miles. As far as the eye can see.

The springs here are always green and blooming, the falls full of crisp red leaves and refreshing breezes, and the winters always have more than enough snow for everyone. Tami looks out across her backyard - where a fence and other houses once stood - and sees the game at play.

Eric is playing with the guys, his aches and pains gone, and he looks so young. It's a friendly game, Tim and Landry and Smash and Matt and Jason all playing with Luke and Tinker and Hastings, their laughs and teasing remarks flowing through the air as fast as the ball flies. At the side, Jess is yelling at them, a grin on her face, and she's coaching them.

Tami prepares the salad, setting the plates and the glasses down. There's more than enough room here for everyone, the table stretching out for dozens. She's always happy to have more at her table.

Julie moves behind her, baskets of bread in her arms, and she checks her mother's hip with her own. Light flows through her golden hair and Tami hugs her tight. Down the table, Tyra and Gracie and Becky sorting out the glasses and the forks, laughter floating like bubbles.

"Come on. Everyone's arriving now."

And so they are, emerging from their own houses, perfect and pristine and home. Their homes that they've built themselves. She can see Buddy and Lyla and Mrs Saracen teachers and friends and students all coming, with their families and friends and loved ones. The table will always be big enough, however. Here, there's always enough food to go around.

Tami isn't really sure where this is. Her mind remembers long times in church, being told about heaven and Paradise, but then she remembers all the fights, the struggles, slipping away from Eric in a hospital bed with cancer coursing through her veins, and she doesn't want to remember that.

What Tami does remember is arriving here and beginning to rebuild her house. She remembers tending the garden and sitting out with her neighbours with lemonade and running down the street because she can. She remembers Eric arriving and greeting him in a summer dress and kissing his face until the sun has set.

The food is all ready and Tami calls out to across the fields, "Dinner's ready!" Eric leads the charge, everyone settling down in a flurry of chatter, good-hearted gestures and kind, sweet words. Even when night comes, the barbecue pits and the bonfires will keep them warm, Tami happily knows.

She might be dead, Tami Taylor acknowledges, but that doesn't mean she can't still care about people. Tami stands and clinks her glass and to something bigger than religion or faith, everyone says grace.


End file.
